SANTIAGO, Chile: Chile's electorate took a sharp right turn on December 14, electing José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party as its next president, the first time since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.

Kast secured a commanding 58 percent in the runoff. The government-backed leftist candidate, Jeannette Jara, who won 42 percent of the vote, conceded defeat.

Kast has been a right-wing hardliner throughout his decades-long political career. He has proposed building border walls, deploying the military to high-crime areas, and deporting all migrants who are in the country illegally.

In a victory speech to a raucous crowd waving Chilean flags at the headquarters of his Republican Party in the upscale Las Condes neighborhood of Santiago, Kast pledged "real change."

"Without security, there is no peace. Without peace, there is no democracy, and without democracy, there is no freedom, and Chile will return to being free of crime, anxiety, and fear," he said.

But Kast reminded the crowd that change would require perseverance and time, and that there were "no magical solutions."

The resurgent right has been sweeping the polls in Latin America. Before Kast, there were Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, and Argentina's Javier Milei. In Bolivia, centrist Rodrigo Paz ended almost two decades of socialist rule in an October election.

This was Kast's third run for the presidency and his second runoff, after losing to leftist President Gabriel Boric in 2021. Kast, whom many Chileans had once seen as too extreme, attracted voters increasingly worried about crime and immigration.

Kast won even in regions of Chile that traditionally vote left. It was a resounding rejection of Jara, who, as a Communist Party member, was seen as too extreme, said Claudia Heiss, a political scientist at the University of Chile.

Ignacio Segovia, a 23-year-old engineering student and supporter at Kast's party headquarters, was seen wearing a red cap emblazoned with "Make Chile Great Again."

"I grew up in a peaceful Chile where you could go out in the street, you had no worries, you went out and never had problems or fear," he said. "Now you can't go out peacefully."

While Chile is still among the safest countries in Latin America, violent crime has risen in recent years as organized crime groups have gained a foothold. They have exploited the country's porous northern desert borders with coca-producing neighbors Peru and Bolivia, its major international ports, and an influx of migrants — many from Venezuela — who are vulnerable to human and sex trafficking.